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| Cécile Chaminade wonders when she'll be heard on the radio as often as Maurice Duruflé. |
Again, I've chosen to embed the Tweets rather than transcribe them so you may interact with them if you'd like.
As the conversation went on, "symphonic rabble rouser" Emily E. Hogstad had a substantial amount to say:
Thinking about the reception and perception of female composers after reading several interesting threads starring @K_Leonard_PhD @MWilsonKimber @LindaHyphen and others... 1/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
I loved this observation by @MWilsonKimber. Even an amateur historian like me can attest: this is SO TRUE, and you can see it simply by reading about historical musical women or (better yet) consulting old newspapers. 3/? pic.twitter.com/B796aBprjC— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
The most striking example I've personally come across was this Amy Beach Minneapolis Symphony review from 1917, which I tweeted earlier this year. 4/? pic.twitter.com/ZtjZfaRk9y— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
It's worth taking a step back and realizing that the Minneapolis Symphony was only 14 years old in 1917. It was wartime. Even decades later, it wasn't uncommon for offering plates to be passed around at the season finale to raise enough money to present the next season. 5/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
They also, of course, gave WAYYY fewer concerts than orchestras do nowadays. 6/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
And yet, even in those challenging circumstances, they chose to present large-scale contemporary works, including two big pieces by Amy Beach, the Gaelic Symphony and piano concerto. 7/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
I'm trying to imagine what an equivalent programming risk would be nowadays. Even though we're no longer in WWI, we have an endowment and 114 years of history, and wayyy more concerts are played. 8/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
Most people interested in the topic love discussing the challenges that historical female composers faced. (FWIW I'm guilty of this. I'm motivated and fascinated by injustice. But I'm not alone.) 9/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
But (and I'm struggling to verbalize this concept in a fair way...) when we're constantly focused solely on how historical women were shut down, we run the risk of not appreciating how genuinely esteemed many of them were in their own eras. 10/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
But I'm afraid that when we as a music-loving society fully embrace the tragedy of the suppressed female composer, without acknowledging the success of historical women, that's buying into something that, while true in one way, also feels very reductionist, and less rich. 12/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
And it also opens the door to folks not minding they don't hear women. Partly because of thoughts like "women's work was of lesser quality because of their oppression and disadvantages"; "we pity-listen to them"; "they were discouraged and didn't write much, period"; etc. 13/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
And it also opens ANOTHER door to self-congratulations at how far we've come, how comparatively enlightened we are now, that we recognize the tragedy and absurdity and cruelty of past oppression. (I'm also totally guilty of this.) 14/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
But looking at that Minneapolis Symphony / Amy Beach program, I realize I need to take a hard look at how women's voices are (or aren't) heard nowadays. We can throw rocks at earlier centuries, but we have to do it realizing we're in glass houses. 15/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
But looking at that Minneapolis Symphony / Amy Beach program, I realize I need to take a hard look at how women's voices are (or aren't) heard nowadays. We can throw rocks at earlier centuries, but we have to do it realizing we're in glass houses. 15/?— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
That thread prompted many comments throughout, so I'll include some "parent Tweets" for orientation
Of course, when I make my students look at old concert programs, they report back that the concert had Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin on it. They simply ignore Franz Abt, Amy Beach, or Cécile Chaminade until I say "Who's that?"— Marian Wilson Kimber (@MWilsonKimber) December 19, 2017
How female composers (and noncanonic male composers) get erased. We see only what we think we are supposed to see. Unless we pay attention.— Marian Wilson Kimber (@MWilsonKimber) December 19, 2017
Then students are incredulous--"why haven't I heard of [insert name here]?!!!" But it's so hard for me that sometimes, no matter how hard I try, their worlds are so small--and they want them to remain that way.— Marian Wilson Kimber (@MWilsonKimber) December 19, 2017
I've encountered that, too (among classical fans), and it's so FRUSTRATING! My theory is that their identity is somewhat wrapped up in knowing about classical music, that new information is scary; it means they DON'T know everything and challenges their claim to expertise.— Linda Shaver-Gleason (@LindaHyphen) December 19, 2017
And they are way more boring. . . 😆— Marian Wilson Kimber (@MWilsonKimber) December 19, 2017
Absolutely. And it denies women the agency they did have.— Marian Wilson Kimber (@MWilsonKimber) December 19, 2017
Yes. @pjbishop93 and I are putting together an essay collection on just this, actually: the myth of the rare, talented female musician outside of elite classes/genres.— (((Kendra Leonard))) (@K_Leonard_PhD) December 19, 2017
Yes, yes, yes! It reminds me of @MWilsonKimber's outrage that prompted this blog post: https://t.co/dVaRVX0aVG— Linda Shaver-Gleason (@LindaHyphen) December 19, 2017
This is the year that I'm done waiting for things to get better and have risen with fire in my eyes and smoke coming out of my ears, howling!— Marian Wilson Kimber (@MWilsonKimber) December 19, 2017
I think many dudes absolve themselves of taking proactive steps towards righting the wrongs of the past by using them as a convenient foil— Matt Marks (@mattmarks) December 19, 2017
That idea really resonates with me. I'd submit that women do it, too. I've been guilty of it.— Emily E Hogstad (@song_of_lark) December 19, 2017
I'm sure I have as well :/— Matt Marks (@mattmarks) December 19, 2017
Btw I think your comments really strike to the heart of the hidden battle between passive pessimism & active idealism in our scene. I've been privy to so many 'We just don't get many female applicants' conversations that neglect outreach as a solution
[Cough, cough.. . I've got this article about Fanny Hensel you might like. . . ]— Marian Wilson Kimber (@MWilsonKimber) December 19, 2017
Also, historical representation matters. Too many people think women composers are a recent development, but they've been there all along! It adds legitimacy to something certain people dismiss as a fad (while those male composers will obviously endure forever 🙄).— Linda Shaver-Gleason (@LindaHyphen) December 19, 2017
(I got started on this train of thought when people pointed out that transgender people have been systematically erased from history so that certain people can erroneously wonder, "Why are people trans all of a sudden?!" and dismiss them as aberrations that will go away in time.)— Linda Shaver-Gleason (@LindaHyphen) December 19, 2017
And so on. Being Twitter, the conversation is still going as of the time I wrote this, but I'm going to cut it off here. A few Tweet threads veered into discussions of current women composers, which is also an important topic, but I chose to focus on women of the past because I'm a historian and that's where I feel most comfortable. (If you want more on current composers, I suggest starting with violist Michael Hall's Tweet.
Overall, I'm encouraged by these threads. You can probably sense the frustration and urgency in the Tweets; so many of us are non-males who have devoted our lives to an institution that ignores or undermines our gender. The current culture surrounding classical music is blatantly masculine, but that doesn't mean that classical music itself is masculine. We're just experiencing a point in time (albeit one that's lasted over a century) in which men have decided to tell stories about men. The stories of women (and others who are not necessarily male) already exist—now is the time to find them and tell them.
Special thanks to Emily E Hogstad and others for contributing to this discussion.
As for the timeliness of this discussion, this article in the Boston Globe ran the day this entry posted: "Area musicians call on BSO to diversify programming."
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